1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive device that drives a movable member by an actuator to move the movable member in a predetermined direction, and an image stabilizer that corrects for shake on a hand-held shot with an imaging apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional imaging apparatuses such as digital cameras are often provided with an image stabilizer to stabilize hand-shake blurring. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2006-81348 and 2006-67712 each disclose an example of an image stabilizer. The image stabilizer shifts, by a vibrator including an actuator, an imaging device such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) in a plane perpendicular to the imaging optical axis in the horizontal and vertical directions independently of each other. Thus, the image stabilizer corrects the position on the imaging surface of the imaging device where light rays reflected from an object are focused. To move a movable member having the imaging device mounted thereon by the vibrator such as an actuator as described above, a ball support system is known as a conventional technology in which the movable member is movably supported by a plurality of balls arranged sequentially along the movement path.